Baby Shower
by Danielle Salvatore
Summary: Helga is dragged off to a baby shower to celebrate the coming up arrival of her and Arnold's first child. One-shot Just pointless fluff, really.


Baby Shower

**A/N: Hello everyone *Waves*. Yes, I'm a stranger to the Hey Arnold! Fandom. This is my first ever fanfiction for it, but I hope I didn't too badly with it. I've recently gotten re-obsessed with the show (and Arnold/Helga) after watching re-runs of it on Nickelodeon, so I thought I'd try my hand at it. Hope you like it :)**

* * *

"Criminy Olga! Enough with the pictures already!"

"Oh baby sister! I can't help it…I'm just so excited! I can't believe that in a couple of months, I'm going to be an auntie!"

A twenty-four year old Helga rolled her eyes, but the smallest of smiles played on her lips as she placed a hand on the bulge in her stomach.

She was seven months pregnant with her and Arnold's first child. And while she couldn't wait for the baby to arrive, and to finally see the sure-to-be wonderful creation she and her beloved created together, the fuss that came with her pregnancy was something she was not enjoying.

This was probably the seventh…no, EIGHTH time she's taken a car trip with Olga just in the past three months. Ever since the official confirmation of the pregnancy, Olga had gone CRAZY with taking her shopping for toys, and things for the nursery.

And though the two sisters had grown closer over the last few years since Helga had learned to open up more, and Olga had learned to not be such an attention-seeker, there was still only so much Olga time she could take without completely losing it.

"Well, for Pete's sake, could you at least wait until we actually GET to the shower before you start snapping pictures? And I thought I told you not to call me that anymore!"

They were on their way to her baby shower, being hosted at Rhonda's house. Helga had initially not wanted anything big like a baby shower, and had stated that if anyone wanted to give them something for the baby, they could just hand it to them. But after a constant begging from Olga, Phoebe, and Lila, she had eventually caved and let them plan her one.

Olga laughed lightly, having grown used to her younger sister's angry outbursts over the years.

"Okay. I won't take anymore pictures until we get there, baby sister", she replied, completely ignoring Helga's last comment on the "baby sister" nickname. "But before we get there, you have to turn that frown upside down. Everyone's very excited to see you!"

Helga sighed, before doing a wide, over-exaggerated smile.

"Happy?"

Olga nodded quickly and happily as she finally got into the driver's seat of the car, the mocking tone in her sister's voice seeming to go right over head, as per usual.

To her relief, the ride to Rhonda's house was surprisingly quiet, other than Olga's occasional, random questions about the upcoming baby.

But she knew the peaceful silence was going to end once they reached the house.

After driving for about five minutes, Olga parked the car in front of the Lloyd house, cheerfully getting out of the car.

"Come on…your friends are all waiting inside!"

With a grumbled "Hold your horses"; Helga followed her older sister out of the car, and towards the front steps of the house. They only had to ring the doorbell once before Rhonda answered it and ushered them both inside.

"It's about time you got here", Rhonda supplied impatiently. "We've all been waiting for over an hour."

"Listen princess, I didn't even WANT to come here. I'm doing you all a favor. So I suggest that you don't complain."

Rhonda rolled her eyes. "Well, come on. We're more than ready to begin."

Just as she expected, the shower turned out to be load and hectic. The whole gang was there; Phoebe, Nadine, Sheena, Rhonda, and Lila…everyone minus their boyfriends or husbands anyway. Rhonda had been sure to make it clear that no one of the male gender was allowed to attend.

Questions were being fired at her from all angles, and though once in a while she snapped and shot back an impatient or sarcastic answer, Helga answered the majority of them, just to get it over with.

"Do you know the gender yet?" Rhonda asked, as they all sat down in the living room.

Helga smiled sheepishly down at her baby bump. "No. We had a chance to, but we decided to keep it as a surprise."

At that answer, a chorus of complains came from the girls, but thankfully, Phoebe gained control of it before Helga had to.

"I'm certain that Arnold and Helga only want to keep it as a surprise to ensure that the arrival of the baby is even more special. We'll find out then."

Helga gave her best friend a quick grateful look before nodding.

"That's right. And it's OUR choice. That means the rest of you are just going to have to wait too."

There was a brief silence as the disappointment settled into the aura of the room, before Nadine finally spoke up.

"How about names? Do you have any ideas?"

Helga paused. The way the name ideas were chosen was kind of personal…and only between her and Arnold. She hadn't told anyone else about them yet.

But…what the heck? They were going to find out soon enough anyway.

"For a boy, we decided on the name Phillip for the first name, for Arnold's grandfather, and Miles for the middle, for his father."

Phil and Gertie had both passed away about a year ago, after at least getting to witness Arnold and Helga's wedding.

It had been Helga's idea to choose the name Phillip for their potential son's name. Arnold had been touched, and had gone to great lengths to make sure Helga didn't want to name their child after an adult figure in her life. Helga had only laughed, and told him not to worry about it….that every adult figure in HER life didn't deserve to have a part in their child's name. And that it wasn't that big of a deal.

But secretly, she was glad that it made him so happy.

"Oh gosh Helga, that's just ever so sweet", Lila commented with a smile. "What about for a girl?"

"Arnold chose that one. For some reason, he wants to name it after me if it's a girl. So we decided on Stella for the first, for his mother, and for the middle, my middle name, Ger….."

She stopped herself mid-word, mentally smacking herself. WHAT was she thinking? She'd already spent years waiting for everyone to forget that her middle name was "Geraldine" after it was announced at her and Arnold's wedding. And now she was just about to blurt it out to them again?

Shaking her head at her own brief stupidity, she suddenly stood up.

"Alright! Enough with the questions. Didn't you all drag me here so you can give me presents for the baby?"

Though there were a few impatient looks at her for cutting off on her answer, most of the girls were too excited about the gift giving to care too much.

"Here baby sister, open mine first…."

* * *

When she finally got home about an hour later, Olga ended up helping her load the gifts from the bay shower into the house. She'd been stubborn, and insisted that she could do it on her own, but Olga had been persistent, claiming that she was pregnant, and shouldn't put that much pressure on herself by working too much.

But now she was finally alone.

As she walked into the dining room, she saw a note on the table, and frowned, picking it up.

**Dear Helga,**

**I'm sorry that I wasn't here when you got home. At the last minute, I realized that we were out of chocolate ice cream, and I knew that you would want some after you got home. But I'll be home soon. I hope you had fun at the shower!**

**Love, **

**Arnold**

Helga smiled and sighed in content. It was just like her sweet football head to remember that chocolate ice cream was her #1 craving from her pregnancy, and to make sure that she had it.

Sometimes, she really did wonder how she got so lucky.

Wanting to kill the time before her beloved got home; she went over and sat down on the couch, flipping on the T.V and grabbed the remote, casually flipping through the channels while her other hand absentmindedly rubbed the baby bump.

Luckily, in only a short time, she heard the door open, and in seconds, Arnold stood in the kitchen, smiling softly at her before placing the gallon of chocolate ice cream he had just bought on the table, and coming over to wrap his arms around her neck as he stood behind the couch.

"So how are my favorite people today?"

"We're good. Little Phil didn't kick me too badly the past few hours, so that's good."

Though she would be content with either gender, she was secretly hoping for a boy…and boy who would be JUST LIKE Arnold. It'd be nice to have a mini him in the house, though she'd never admit it out load.

She could practically feel her husband roll his eyes.

"How are you so sure that little Phil won't be a little Stella?"

"Mother's intuition, football head. Now why don't you make yourself useful and dish me up some of that ice cream?"

Arnold gave a small laugh, but did as she said, disentangling his arms from her around her neck, and going back into the kitchen. "Whatever you say, Helga."

In minutes, she had a decent-sized bowl of chocolate ice cream in her lap as Arnold sat down next to her on the couch.

"So…what are you watching?"

Taking a bite of ice cream, Helga shrugged. "Nothing really. I was just flipping through channels."

Arnold nodded, and casually took her hand into his, giving it a gentle squeeze.

Holding back a sigh, Helga finished up her ice cream before turning back towards her beloved.

"So Olga helped me move everything from the baby shower into the house. It's all in the nursery. We got a couple of toys from her, blankets from Phoebe and Gerald, a set of bottles and Sippy cups from Lila, and….Arnold are you even paying attention?"

Arnold's gaze was on her stomach, and he had a dreamy-like expression on his face.

Helga waved a hand in his face. "Earth to football head!"

Arnold quickly shook his head, snapping out of it. "Huh?"

"Criminy Arnold. What's so fascinating about my stomach?"

Arnold smiled. "I'm sorry Helga. I just…I just can't believe it, you know? In a couple of months, we're going to be parents." He gave another gentle squeeze to her hands. "I'm just excited for that day to come."

He said it so sweetly and so sincerely, that Helga couldn't help but smile back.

"I'm excited to. And I know that you're going to be a great father."

That was what she knew for sure. Arnold would be the most lovable dad around. And he would surely make up for any mistakes she might make in the journey of parenting. That comforted her.

"And you're going to be a great mother", Arnold added, as he wrapped his arms around her to pull her closer, giving her a peck on the lips before kissing her cheek. "You'll see."

He knew about her insecurities…and her small fears of being a little like her parents after the baby was born.

She knew she wouldn't be the perfect parent like Arnold was sure to be, but she was damn well going to try.

She would try for her baby. Her and ARNOLD'S baby.

**The End**

**A/N: Yeah, the ending was a bit abrupt. But I was running out of ideas, and I didn't want to drag it out too much. Oh well….**


End file.
